Book Offers Glimpse Into Clinton's Political Tactics

Authors Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes visit Meet the Press to discuss their new book on Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign.

Meet the Press

This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>>a
hit list
kept about her enemies and a fight with husband bill over her
2008
convention speech. new revelations about former first lady
hillary clinton
in a book not out until tuesday. we're going to have an exclusive interview with the authors here in just a minute. first the key question. hj affect how will her past
hillary
's future if she runs in
2016
?

>>what are your plans for
2016
?

>>i'm not thinking about it. i've tried to get other people not to think about it. i'll think about, you know, in the future sometime.

>>she says she's not thinking about it but others definitely are. polls show
hillary clinton
with a commanding lead over other potential democrats. "time" magazine asks, can anyone stop
hillary
? "the new york times" magazine portrays her as planet
hillary
along with an interplanetary web of her political contacts. but her political opponents on the right blame her for
benghazi
and kentucky senator rand paul is now repeatedly criticizing
bill clinton
as a "
sexual predator
for his relationship with intern
monica lewinsky
in the late '90s." and now a new book hrc
state secrets
and the rebirth of
hillary clinton
" offers an inside glimpse into
clinton
's evolution in recent years and her
inner circle
. one of the revelations making headlines, her staff put together a
hit list
of so-called sinners and saints that measured their support and opposition for her during the
2008presidential campaign
. almost six years later, most
clinton
aides can still rattle off the names of traitors and the favors that had been done for them as if it all had happened just a few hours before. among those rated the most disloyal, senator
claire mccaskill
of missouri,
senator john kerry
now secretary of state, and the late
ted kennedy
whose endorsement of
barack obama
was a crucial moment in the
2008
campaign.

>>and joining moo now the authors of the book hrc, amie parnes and bloomberg news
jonathan allen
. welcome to "meet the press."

>>thank you, david.

>>it's great to talk to you before the book comes out. one of the things that's already made news is the concept of the darker part of the world of the clintons, the hit lists, the idea that
bill clinton
, the former president sort of settling scores, clearing field before there might be a run, jonathan.

>>yeah, so the
clinton
aides during the
2008
campaign kept a list of the people who had been treacherous and over the course of the
2010
-
2012
election cycles
bill clinton
went out on the campaign trail and knocked some of these guys out that they didn't like.

>>how so?

>>so he went and supported other democrats in primaries against them and we go through a series of stories in the book as part of the big narrative, one of the light motifs that i like of him knocking out her opponents, people that didn't like her endorsing, raising money for, and this is really part of the story of the clintons, this loyalty.

>>almost and having a chilling effect on anybody else who may not be with her down the line, right?

>>totally. i think that's why you saw senator
claire mccaskill
come out very early for her. she was a seven on the
hit list
. i don't think she was worried. she knew the hatred from the clintons still exists. so i think she tried to get out early and say i am supporting you guys.

>>it's interesting when eg we talk about, you talking about this book in terms of the rebirth but also
state secrets
. in other words the job of secretary of state is so crucial to a potential
2016
run. you write in the book about her approach to the job, and this will be instructive when you debate whether she's a hawk or a dove but also the issues like
benghazi
. here's what you write about a bias for action.
hillary
also harbors a related trait that one source calls a bias for action which influences her
decision making process
. it can be seen in her approach to going after
bin laden
, her building of a coalition to 0 intervene in libya and she encourages her aides to innovate and improvise. she also felt in
benghazi
, the
state department
had to be there whatever the risks. that's going to be real fodder for her opponents.

>>absolutely. we've talked to republicans. there's a quote in the book from shaun spicer is, the
republican national committee
chairman about an add the rnc cut and release in
2013
about
benghazi
. you should get used to seeing that ad. so this is something that's going to be an issue. republicans haven't yet made it something that's beyond partisan. they haven't influenced democrats and independents on it but they're going to try to do that. she's got to come up with an answer for that.

>>republicans said it's part of an mind-set, an expeditionary
foreign policy
belief that she has that's certainly going to be a hard thing for her dealing with progressives in the primaries. there are going to be people who come at her from her left.

>>certainly. the whole bias fraction thing is yu her. good for leon pa at the time ta saw the her out early on the
bin laden
raid. he wanted her buy-in because he knew she would be a hawk. i think that's a big plus for her going in.

>>big factor here is the bill factor. how large does he loom? you've heard rand paul in an interview today talking about lewinsky, talking about the past, calling
bill clinton
a
sexual predator
. so that issue is there. but it's also to what extent does he play in a campaign which he did so large before in a potential administration. here's a moment from her
2008
campaign convention speech you right about. while stheel had been on a mock stage at the
convention center
, but with her there's a
blind spot
. you see this visceral reaction to what's going on with her that he has. it's a problem for him. look, there's been the
al gore
method, distance yourself from
bill clinton
. that didn't work. there was the
2008hillary clinton
method, you know, sort of of let him do what he's doing, he's a good strategist.
barack obama
is the one that figure the out how to use him. put him out as a surrogate but don't let him do a lot of interviews with the press. if she can get him to do what he did on the
2012
campaign trail and we go deep into that in the book, she will serve herself well.

>>interesting nuggeting about
david petraeus
, former head of the cia, commander in afghanistan hog had to resign because of his extramarital affair. he says she would be a tremendous president. that's a real endorsement for somebody that she showed a lot of the kindness to actually when he went through his own disgrace.

>>yes, she wrote him a note actually and she said, i've had a little experience with this which we thought was a really interesting moment. she tends to warm up to people. she might not be as geg grayerious as her husband but very much a politician in her own way.

>>bottom line here, is there anything that says she doesn't run? is it just a matter of time?

>>watching the olympics it's like the ski jumper. she's headed down the hill. there's little that's going to stop her from launching. we talk about the preparation going on on, her top aide has been doing interviews about the
2016
campaign in particular. guy cecil most often mentioned as a possible
campaign manager
sat down with her june, they talked who should be the
campaign manager
. he's made up his mind if he's asked he's going to do it. this is a campaign in full swing. it's more a question of whether she stops running than whether she starts.